• qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website
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      4 months ago

      Yeah I always assumed “bug” was like “vegetable” — it’s a colloquial, not taxonomic, term. But there are “true bugs” so maybe the analogy isn’t completely sound.

      (And tomato is absolutely a vegetable.)

      • dh34d@lemmynsfw.com
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        4 months ago

        They’re culinary vegetables. My wife likes to say it like this: intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing that it doesn’t go in a fruit salad.

  • AVincentInSpace@pawb.social
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    4 months ago
    1. there is no scientific definition of “bug”. the entire category is a social construct much like vegetables
    2. this person’s first sentence defined spiderd as insects and the second sentence said they weren’t
    • NeverNudeNo13@lemmings.world
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      4 months ago

      They are missing some punctuation where it was desperately needed but imagine a comma or period after " spiders are not bugs" and reread.

        • NeverNudeNo13@lemmings.world
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          4 months ago

          All good my dude… It didn’t make sense to me on my first past either so I figured that it might have gotten you in the same spot too. Just glad to see the community is not throwing down votes at ya anymore, because your comment just felt like an honest misread. Cheers.

  • chetradley@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The number one rule for pedants is: if you’re going to be pedantic, you’d damn well better be correct.

  • azi@mander.xyz
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    4 months ago

    Anyone know what the first known case of ‘bug’ exclusively referring to Hemipterans/Heteropterans? The first use of bug being applied to arthropods was in the 1620s in reference to bedbugs (in Hemiptera but not Heteroptera) with the term ladybug (not in Hemiptera) first attested in the 1690s. Both predate Linnean taxonomy. So why and when did entomologists decide to coin this highly restrictive definition? It’s a very English-language term so it surely wasn’t when the taxon was created by Linnaeus.

  • mhague@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I’m not a scientist, but I’m the kind of person to keep black widows as pets and create a website that catalogues all the spiders in my area. I’d allow spiders being called bugs, or even insects. Even poisonous is alright but it does hurt a little.

    • Endmaker@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      create a website that catalogues all the spiders in my area

      You are a web developer looking for other web developers ;)

      • mhague@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        It was a Google site (from years ago) so all that’s left is a random archive somewhere. I had all the local spiders+favorites, but the only original content were pictures of Latrodectus and Kukulkania Hibernalis. Beautiful spiders.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    A retort in three parts;

    1. It’s bugs (colloquial), not Bugs (texanomic),

    2. There’s being pedantic and then there’s being a jackass - that’s you, jackass, and

    3. @eat_roadkill should embrace their name and go chow down on a three-day-dead skunk.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      Yeah, I’m pretty sure taxonomy is in latin because actual scientists got tired of dealing with pedantic dipshits.

      “Bug” is an english word so it’s the domain of an etymologist not a biolgist. My lookup of the word indicates applying “bug” to arachnids is perfectly cromulent.

  • Timbo1970@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Except…what do spiders eat? Hence, a bug-lite would fit perfectly with their favoured prey. Big-brain missed the obvious.